Spotify’s Summer of Rumors (UPDATED)

There seems to be more than the usual amount of Spotify rumors flying around this summer: I guess that’s what results from a big cash injection and slow news days at the tech sites. Here at The Pansentient League we usually wait until there are at least two independent sources of a story before we report it, but I thought it might be fun to post a round-up of the current speculation.

The rumor that just keeps on giving, I’ve lost count of the amount of times a tech site has proclaimed they have inside sources confirming Spotify will launch in the USA soon. “Spotify US Launch Is Just Days Away” said siliconvalleywatcher.com back in June, for example. TechCrunch got so fed up with these false news stories that they used it as the basis for a joke post at the end of 2010. But Spotify have offices and staff in New York and so the US launch really is just a matter of time. Spotify VP Jonathan Forster recently said “We won’t launch before July 5th” and that “We’re signing the remaining deals as I speak.” These are the quotes that led to all the Mid-July launch stories you might have read.

Spotify to Launch in Denmark

The latest country to get the Spotify Speculation treatment is Denmark. Apparently Spotify and KODA (the Danish collecting society for songwriters, composers and music publishers) have been in negotiations for over a year and this is now nearing completion.

Spotify to Launch in Belgium

“Spotify will soon be available in Belgium,” claimed De Standaard.be a few days ago. They state that De Morgen is reporting that Spotify is negotiating with Belgacom and Telenet about who will offer the service, although checking the De Morgen website only leads to story from April about how “Spotify has no interest in the Belgian market.”

Spotify Music on Facebook

We’ve already posted “Spotify and Facebook: the story so far.” Forbes’ Parmy Olson reported at the end of May 2011 that Spotify would be embedded in Facebook and that this “could be launched in as little as two weeks.” She obviously got her timeline wrong, but Facebook’s announcement that it will “launch something awesome” this week has re-fueled this speculation.

Another rumor that’s been rumbling on for a while now is that Spotify are negotiating with Virgin Media to power their music service. “Virgin Media set to partner with Spotify” claimed The Telegraph back in October 2010. Last week the Guardian wrote that “Virgin Media close to deal to pave way for digital music service” stating that a deal has now been agreed in principle. They claim trials will begin this summer with a country-wide rollout by the end of the year.

Spotify to Launch a Spaceship

My favorite rumor is the one started by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek himself. Back in April, Ek tweeted that “Spotify is launching a space rocket” (note the shameless out-of-context thing I did there 😉 Of course that was Ek’s joke to highlight how ludicrous media speculation around Spotify can be, but I would point to one Sir Richard Branson, another former music industry genius who now really has launched spaceships…

About

The Pansentient League is a blog from Edinburgh-based writer Jer White (also known as Afront). It's mostly about music-streaming service Spotify, with a dose of synthpop music, Google Android, and the odd post or two about gadgets and science fiction.